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What Can We Gain by Losing Infinity? Most mathematicians take the notion of infinity for granted — it’s deeply rooted in math’s most...
5th May 2026
1

What Can We Gain by Losing Infinity?

from The Quanta Podcast [alt+shift+b] in science

5th May 2026
Most mathematicians take the notion of infinity for granted — it’s deeply rooted in math’s most fundamental assumptions. But a small group of researchers hopes to banish infinity completely. On this episode of The Quanta Podcast, host Samir Patel speaks with math editor Jordana...
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My $500M Mars Rover Mistake: A Failure Story Some mistakes feel worse than death.
27th Nov 2023
47

My $500M Mars Rover Mistake: A Failure Story

from Articles - Chris Lewicki [alt+shift+b] in science

27th Nov 2023
Some mistakes feel worse than death.
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Marine science, the environment, and the 2013 Australian election I’ve been a bit reluctant to write about the upcoming election in this blog; after all the point of...
10th Sep 2013
86

Marine science, the environment, and the 2013 Australian election

from Confessions of a Marine Ecologist [alt+shift+b] in science

10th Sep 2013
I’ve been a bit reluctant to write about the upcoming election in this blog; after all the point of this blog has never been about anything political!  However, for better or worse the state of our  environment (including our oceans) are inextricably linked to politics, so here...
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WaderTales blogs in 2022 Here are brief summaries of the sixteen WaderTales blogs that were published in 2022. I have grouped...
22nd Dec 2022
59

WaderTales blogs in 2022

from wadertales [alt+shift+b] in science

22nd Dec 2022
Here are brief summaries of the sixteen WaderTales blogs that were published in 2022. I have grouped the blogs into sections; problems with trees, more research from Iceland, Curlews, news from the East Asian-Australasian Flyway, tracking and updates. As ever, I am grateful to...
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Brian Behlendorf: A Foundation of Trust: Building a Blockchain Future An Open Source pioneer, [Brian Behlendorf](https://twitter.com/brianbehlendorf) now leads the effort...
7th Jun 2019
1

Brian Behlendorf: A Foundation of Trust: Building a Blockchain Future

from Long Now [alt+shift+b] in science

7th Jun 2019
An Open Source pioneer, [Brian Behlendorf](https://twitter.com/brianbehlendorf) now leads the effort to build the infrastructure for trust as a service. In the past he helped build the foundations of the Web with [the Apache Foundation](http://www.apache.org/) and brought Open...
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Curlew nest survival The Eurasian Curlew is designated as ‘Near-Threatened’ by IUCN/BirdLife. It is Red-listed in the UK,...
4th Jan 2023
61

Curlew nest survival

from wadertales [alt+shift+b] in science

4th Jan 2023
The Eurasian Curlew is designated as ‘Near-Threatened’ by IUCN/BirdLife. It is Red-listed in the UK,  largely due to a rapid decline in breeding numbers. In this context, the fact that there are a few pink squares (indicating increased numbers) on the map showing breeding...
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The Making of an Elite: Japanese Christians Why are Japanese elites so likely to be Christian when Japan is a 99% non-Christian country?
7th Nov 2025
1

The Making of an Elite: Japanese Christians

from Cremieux Recueil [alt+shift+b] in science

7th Nov 2025
Why are Japanese elites so likely to be Christian when Japan is a 99% non-Christian country?
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Jason Tester: Queering the Future: How LGBTQ Foresight Can Benefit All Jason Tester asks us to see the powerful potential of "queering the future" - how looking at the...
3rd Feb 2021
1

Jason Tester: Queering the Future: How LGBTQ Foresight Can Benefit All

from Long Now [alt+shift+b] in science

3rd Feb 2021
Jason Tester asks us to see the powerful potential of "queering the future" - how looking at the future through a lens of difference and openness can reveal unexpected solutions to wicked problems, and new angles on innovation. Might a queer perspective hold some of the keys to...
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Fixing my heating system The heating system in my apartment building consists of a group of heat pumps that deliver warm...
3rd May 2024
76

Fixing my heating system

from Willem Pennings [alt+shift+b] in science

3rd May 2024
The heating system in my apartment building consists of a group of heat pumps that deliver warm water to the underfloor heating system of about a dozen apartments, including mine. During the warm summer months, the system supplies cool water instead. The heat pumps figure out...
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Rip Anderson & Gwyneth Cravens: Power to Save the World ### Nuclear Footprint In the early 1980s Gwyneth Cravens was one of the protesters against the...
15th Sep 2007
1

Rip Anderson & Gwyneth Cravens: Power to Save the World

from Long Now [alt+shift+b] in science

15th Sep 2007
### Nuclear Footprint In the early 1980s Gwyneth Cravens was one of the protesters against the Shoreham Nuclear Power Plant on Long Island, and also participated in ban-the-bomb rallies. After 15 years of deepening familiarity with nuclear power, she says she still would ban the...
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Heads Up: Total Eclipse of the Moon Coming March 3 Information on the total eclipse of the Moon coming the morning of March 3 The post Heads Up: Total...
25th Feb 2026
1

Heads Up: Total Eclipse of the Moon Coming March 3

from Andrew Fraknoi – Astronomy Lectures – Astronomy Education Resources [alt+shift+b] in science

25th Feb 2026
Information on the total eclipse of the Moon coming the morning of March 3 The post Heads Up: Total Eclipse of the Moon Coming March 3 appeared first on Andrew Fraknoi - Astronomy Lectures - Astronomy Education Resources.
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How Poor Maintenance Loses Wars: 1973, Israel Maintains A new section from Stewart Brand's Maintenance on Books in Progress
5th Oct 2023
56

How Poor Maintenance Loses Wars: 1973, Israel Maintains

from The Works in Progress Newsletter [alt+shift+b] in science

5th Oct 2023
A new section from Stewart Brand's Maintenance on Books in Progress
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Star Way of Humanity: American Space Art During the COVID-19 shutdown three years ago, I spent a lot of my time at home digging through my...
20th Aug 2023
37

Star Way of Humanity: American Space Art

from Drew Ex Machina [alt+shift+b] in science

20th Aug 2023
During the COVID-19 shutdown three years ago, I spent a lot of my time at home digging through my archives discovering all sorts of items I […]
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Lawrence Lessig: How Money Corrupts Congress and a Plan to Stop It ### Public Funding for Public Elections Larry Lessig gave a rousing performance for the 100th...
18th Jan 2012
1

Lawrence Lessig: How Money Corrupts Congress and a Plan to Stop It

from Long Now [alt+shift+b] in science

18th Jan 2012
### Public Funding for Public Elections Larry Lessig gave a rousing performance for the 100th Seminar About Long-Term Thinking. In a lawyerly fashion he laid out evidence of a new type of corruption that is disrupting the American republic, and he offered a remedy for that...
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Becoming a Republic The following is the essay I had submitted as part of the one week summer course I took at the...
1st Aug 2025
38

Becoming a Republic

from Inverted Passion [alt+shift+b] in science

1st Aug 2025
The following is the essay I had submitted as part of the one week summer course I took at the Oxford University, where we read Plato’s Republic. The essay includes a few references to structure and specific content from the book, so if something doesn’t make sense, it’s probably...
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US Government UFO (UAP) Footage For decades, the public suspected that the US Government was hiding secret intelligence about UFOs —...
10th Feb 2025
72

US Government UFO (UAP) Footage

from Beautiful Public Data [alt+shift+b] in science

10th Feb 2025
For decades, the public suspected that the US Government was hiding secret intelligence about UFOs — (now known as UAPs). Turns out…it kind of was.
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The Elephant in the Brain It's finally here! The Elephant in the Brain: Hidden Motives in Everyday Life — my first book,...
3rd Jan 2018
47

The Elephant in the Brain

from Melting Asphalt [alt+shift+b] in science

3rd Jan 2018
It's finally here! The Elephant in the Brain: Hidden Motives in Everyday Life — my first book, coauthored with Robin Hanson — is now widely available. You can find the ebook version on Kindle, Google Play, and iBooks. It's also… Read more ›
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Drew Ex Machina 10th Anniversary: Top Ten Posts I find it difficult to believe but, it was ten years ago today that I posted the first article on my...
27th Mar 2024
111

Drew Ex Machina 10th Anniversary: Top Ten Posts

from Drew Ex Machina [alt+shift+b] in science

27th Mar 2024
I find it difficult to believe but, it was ten years ago today that I posted the first article on my then-new website, Drew Ex Machina. […]
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Ramez Naam: Enhancing Humans, Advancing Humanity ### Enhancing humans and humanity Beginning with the accelerating pace of biotech tools for human...
23rd Jul 2015
1

Ramez Naam: Enhancing Humans, Advancing Humanity

from Long Now [alt+shift+b] in science

23rd Jul 2015
### Enhancing humans and humanity Beginning with the accelerating pace of biotech tools for human health and enhancement, Naam noted that health issues such as disease prevention will be drastically easier to implement than enhancement. Preventing some hereditary diseases can be...
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Roger Kennedy: The Political History of North America from 25,000 BC to 12,000 AD ### Ancient American politics Roger Kennedy, the former head of the Smithsonian National Museum of...
26th Feb 2005
1

Roger Kennedy: The Political History of North America from 25,000 BC to 12,000 AD

from Long Now [alt+shift+b] in science

26th Feb 2005
### Ancient American politics Roger Kennedy, the former head of the Smithsonian National Museum of American History and former Director of the US National Park Service, is so eloquent that Walt Kelly based a "Pogo" character on him (the bear P.T. Bridgeport, whose speech...
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Pioneer 3: JPL’s First Moonshot Attempt With the new push by the United States and other space faring powers to renew the exploration of the...
6th Dec 2022
47

Pioneer 3: JPL’s First Moonshot Attempt

from Drew Ex Machina [alt+shift+b] in science

6th Dec 2022
With the new push by the United States and other space faring powers to renew the exploration of the Moon, miniaturized spacecraft have been made part […]
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A World Without Clouds A state-of-the-art supercomputer simulation indicates that a feedback loop between global warming...
2nd Jan 2020
1

A World Without Clouds

from The Quanta Podcast [alt+shift+b] in science

2nd Jan 2020
A state-of-the-art supercomputer simulation indicates that a feedback loop between global warming and cloud loss can push Earth’s climate past a disastrous tipping point in as little as a century. The post A World Without Clouds first appeared on Quanta Magazine
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Tiny Exploding Houses Promoted 18th-Century Lightning Rods Imagine if engineers were required to build a working model to demonstrate every new technological...
1st Apr 2023
43

Tiny Exploding Houses Promoted 18th-Century Lightning Rods

from IEEE Spectrum [alt+shift+b] in science

1st Apr 2023
Imagine if engineers were required to build a working model to demonstrate every new technological concept to the general public. Done right, tech literacy might soar! A compelling visual example can really help people understand the applications and implications of new...
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Beth Shapiro: How to Clone a Mammoth ## De-extinction science When people hear about “ancient DNA” in fossils, Shapiro began, the first...
12th May 2015
1

Beth Shapiro: How to Clone a Mammoth

from Long Now [alt+shift+b] in science

12th May 2015
## De-extinction science When people hear about “ancient DNA” in fossils, Shapiro began, the first question always is “Can we clone a dinosaur?” Dinosaurs died out so many millions of years ago, their fossils are nothing but rock (and by the way, there’s no workaround with...
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The Hidden Magnetic Universe Begins to Come Into View Astronomers are discovering that magnetic fields permeate much of the cosmos. If these fields date...
3rd Dec 2020
1

The Hidden Magnetic Universe Begins to Come Into View

from The Quanta Podcast [alt+shift+b] in science

3rd Dec 2020
Astronomers are discovering that magnetic fields permeate much of the cosmos. If these fields date back to the Big Bang, they could solve a major cosmological mystery. The post The Hidden Magnetic Universe Begins to Come Into View first appeared on Quanta Magazine
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The Incredible Shrinking Sex Chromosome Nature offers species a panoply of ways to determine an organism’s sex. That flexibility suggests we...
10th Dec 2015
1

The Incredible Shrinking Sex Chromosome

from The Quanta Podcast [alt+shift+b] in science

10th Dec 2015
Nature offers species a panoply of ways to determine an organism’s sex. That flexibility suggests we need not be concerned about losing sex chromosomes, but it raises the question of why such a fundamental property is so variable. The post The Incredible Shrinking Sex...
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How Jurassic Plankton Stole Control of the Ocean’s Chemistry Only 170 million years ago, new plankton evolved. Their demand for carbon and calcium permanently...
10th Sep 2020
1

How Jurassic Plankton Stole Control of the Ocean’s Chemistry

from The Quanta Podcast [alt+shift+b] in science

10th Sep 2020
Only 170 million years ago, new plankton evolved. Their demand for carbon and calcium permanently transformed the seas as homes for life. The post How Jurassic Plankton Stole Control of the Ocean’s Chemistry first appeared on Quanta Magazine
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Internet Harvest (2024, 1) Free covid treatment for everyone in the US, a novel orthopox virus, a really big machine, cameras...
13th Mar 2024
162

Internet Harvest (2024, 1)

from Eukaryote Writes Blog [alt+shift+b] in science

13th Mar 2024
Free covid treatment for everyone in the US, a novel orthopox virus, a really big machine, cameras used for good and evil, ant heaven now, and more.
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A Fully Renewable Grid? My long-stated position (although certainly modifiable in the face of any new evidence,...
2nd Feb 2026
0

A Fully Renewable Grid?

from NeuroLogica Blog [alt+shift+b] in science

2nd Feb 2026
My long-stated position (although certainly modifiable in the face of any new evidence, technological advance, or good arguments) is that the optimal pathway to most rapidly decarbonize our electrical infrastructure is to pursue all low-carbon options. I have not heard anything...
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Let the great world spin I first heard the song “Fireflies,” by Owl City, shortly after my junior year of college. During the...
12th Jun 2023
58

Let the great world spin

from Quantum Frontiers [alt+shift+b] in science

12th Jun 2023
I first heard the song “Fireflies,” by Owl City, shortly after my junior year of college. During the refrain, singer Adam Young almost whispers, “I’d like to make myself believe / that planet Earth turns slowly.” Goosebumps prickled along my … Continue reading →
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Mongrel Microbe Tests Story of Complex Life A newly discovered class of microbe could help to resolve one of the biggest and most controversial...
12th Nov 2015
1

Mongrel Microbe Tests Story of Complex Life

from The Quanta Podcast [alt+shift+b] in science

12th Nov 2015
A newly discovered class of microbe could help to resolve one of the biggest and most controversial mysteries in evolution — how simple microbes transformed into the complex cells that produced animals, plants and fungi. The post Mongrel Microbe Tests Story of Complex...
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Quantifying the corroboration of a finding A summary of the pros and cons of multiple candidate statistics.
12th Apr 2019
1

Quantifying the corroboration of a finding

from Peder M. Isager [alt+shift+b] in science

12th Apr 2019
A summary of the pros and cons of multiple candidate statistics.
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Games between Programs: The Ruliology of Competition The Basic Setup Whether one’s dealing with biology, economics, politics or a host of other fields,...
4th Jun 2026
1

Games between Programs: The Ruliology of Competition

from Stephen Wolfram Writings [alt+shift+b] in science

4th Jun 2026
The Basic Setup Whether one’s dealing with biology, economics, politics or a host of other fields, it’s common to encounter situations that can be modeled as involving two agents that repeatedly compete with each other. One imagines that at each step each agent can take one of a...
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Brr Wants A Job 8 months post-ice, it's time for something new!
22nd Jul 2024
102

Brr Wants A Job

from brr [alt+shift+b] in science

22nd Jul 2024
8 months post-ice, it's time for something new!
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Rachel Sussman: The World's Oldest Living Organisms ### The Missing Science of Biological Longevity Creative photographer Sussman showed beautiful...
16th Nov 2010
1

Rachel Sussman: The World's Oldest Living Organisms

from Long Now [alt+shift+b] in science

16th Nov 2010
### The Missing Science of Biological Longevity Creative photographer Sussman showed beautiful slides of very elderly organisms. The captions were as crucial as the images---naming the species, the place, and the approximate age. You can see many of them here:...
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How I didn’t become a philosopher (but wound up presenting a named philosophy lecture anyway) Many people ask why I became a theoretical physicist. The answer runs through philosophy—which I...
15th Apr 2024
157

How I didn’t become a philosopher (but wound up presenting a named philosophy lecture anyway)

from Quantum Frontiers [alt+shift+b] in science

15th Apr 2024
Many people ask why I became a theoretical physicist. The answer runs through philosophy—which I thought, for years, I’d left behind in college. My formal relationship with philosophy originated with Mr. Bohrer. My high school classified him as a religion … Continue reading →
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what's happened since the human genome project When the human genome project was deemed “complete” in 2003, it was met with incredible fanfare. The...
17th May 2022
33

what's happened since the human genome project

from Apoorva Srinivasan [alt+shift+b] in science

17th May 2022
When the human genome project was deemed “complete” in 2003, it was met with incredible fanfare. The entire project leading up to that moment had all the drama to keep its audience enthralled. Fierce rivalry between a public and private institution, multiple countries involved,...
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$\mathsf{B}\text{Diff}(\Sigma)$ Classifies $\Sigma$-bundles I’ve been trying to learn all about topological (quantum) field theories, the cobordism hypothesis,...
21st Dec 2024
120

$\mathsf{B}\text{Diff}(\Sigma)$ Classifies $\Sigma$-bundles

from Chris Grossack's Blog [alt+shift+b] in science

21st Dec 2024
I’ve been trying to learn all about topological (quantum) field theories, the cobordism hypothesis, and how to use $(\infty,n)$-categories. This is all in service of some stuff I’m doing with skein algebras (which are part of a “$3+1$ TQFT” often named after Crane–Yetter, but...
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Timothy Ferriss: Accelerated Learning in Accelerated Times ### Learning to learn fast To acquire "the meta-skill of acquiring skills," Ferriss recommends...
15th Sep 2011
1

Timothy Ferriss: Accelerated Learning in Accelerated Times

from Long Now [alt+shift+b] in science

15th Sep 2011
### Learning to learn fast To acquire "the meta-skill of acquiring skills," Ferriss recommends approaching any subject with some contrarian analysis: "What if I try the opposite of best practices?" Some conventional wisdom---"children learn languages faster than adults" (no they...
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23 lessons you will learn living in a very snowy place 6. Snow is heavier than you think. You might think physical strength is useful for lots of things,...
22nd Jan 2026
5

23 lessons you will learn living in a very snowy place

from Eukaryote Writes Blog [alt+shift+b] in science

22nd Jan 2026
6. Snow is heavier than you think. You might think physical strength is useful for lots of things, like overall health or familiar household tasks or picking up dudes (literally or metaphorically.) But actually, the main thing physical strength is useful for is letting you...
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Liberté, égalité, radioactivité France built 40 nuclear reactors in a decade. Here’s how they did it, and how the world can follow...
4th Sep 2025
1

Liberté, égalité, radioactivité

from Works in Progress RSS Feed [alt+shift+b] in science

4th Sep 2025
France built 40 nuclear reactors in a decade. Here’s how they did it, and how the world can follow their lead today.
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Dwarf Planet Ring Mystery Scientists love mysteries, because that is where new discoveries lay. It is nice to find evidence...
9th Feb 2023
57

Dwarf Planet Ring Mystery

from NeuroLogica Blog [alt+shift+b] in science

9th Feb 2023
Scientists love mysteries, because that is where new discoveries lay. It is nice to find evidence consistent with existing theories, providing further confirmation, but it’s exciting to find evidence that cannot be explained with existing theories. Astronomers may have found such...
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BBC Gets Into UFOs Paranormal phenomena tend to wax and wane in the public interest. Typically a generation will become...
1st Jul 2024
108

BBC Gets Into UFOs

from NeuroLogica Blog [alt+shift+b] in science

1st Jul 2024
Paranormal phenomena tend to wax and wane in the public interest. Typically a generation will become fascinated with a topic, but eventually the novelty will wear thin and interest will fade. But the flame will be kept alive by the hardcore believers. Wait long enough, and...
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The Infinite Heist - Part 1 In 1874, Georg Cantor published one of the most important papers in math’s 4,000-year history. Some...
3rd Mar 2026
1

The Infinite Heist - Part 1

from The Quanta Podcast [alt+shift+b] in science

3rd Mar 2026
In 1874, Georg Cantor published one of the most important papers in math’s 4,000-year history. Some ideas in it were stolen. On this episode of The Quanta Podcast, the first of a two-parter, host Samir Patel speaks with math editor Jordana Cepelewicz about the hard-fought journey...
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Peter Schwartz: The Starships ARE Coming ### Starship destiny We now know, Schwartz began, that nearly all of the billions of stars in our...
18th Sep 2013
1

Peter Schwartz: The Starships ARE Coming

from Long Now [alt+shift+b] in science

18th Sep 2013
### Starship destiny We now know, Schwartz began, that nearly all of the billions of stars in our galaxy have planets. If we can master interstellar travel, "there’s someplace to go." Our own solar system is pretty boring---one planet is habitable, the rest are "like Antarctica...
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Phillip Longman: The Depopulation Problem ### The depopulation problem Full PDF of the talk...
14th Aug 2004
1

Phillip Longman: The Depopulation Problem

from Long Now [alt+shift+b] in science

14th Aug 2004
### The depopulation problem Full PDF of the talk [here](http://static.longnow.org/seminars/020040813-longman/salt-020040813-longman.pdf "PDF"), slideshow [here](https://media.longnow.org/salt-slides/Longman.html "The Depopulation Problem"). No need to summarize this time....
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Physicists Start To Pin Down How Stars Forge Heavy Atoms The precursors of heavy elements might arise in the plasma underbellies of swollen stars or in...
2nd Jul 2025
42

Physicists Start To Pin Down How Stars Forge Heavy Atoms

from Quanta Magazine [alt+shift+b] in science

2nd Jul 2025
The precursors of heavy elements might arise in the plasma underbellies of swollen stars or in smoldering stellar corpses. They definitely exist in East Lansing, Michigan. The post Physicists Start To Pin Down How Stars Forge Heavy Atoms first appeared on Quanta...
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Some Future Tech Possibilities It’s difficult to pick winners and losers in the future tech game. In reality you just have to see...
1st Feb 2024
45

Some Future Tech Possibilities

from NeuroLogica Blog [alt+shift+b] in science

1st Feb 2024
It’s difficult to pick winners and losers in the future tech game. In reality you just have to see what happens when you try out a new technology in the real world with actual people. Many technologies that look good on paper run into logistical problems, difficulty scaling, fall...
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Going Critical Background: This is an interactive blog post. I wanted to host it here, but don't know how to make...
13th May 2019
40

Going Critical

from Melting Asphalt [alt+shift+b] in science

13th May 2019
Background: This is an interactive blog post. I wanted to host it here, but don't know how to make it play nice with WordPress. So I decided to host it on another part of the site instead. Click here for… Read more ›
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Brief items - Static electricity, quantum geometry, Hubbard model, + news It's been a busy time that has cut into my blogging, but I wanted to point out some links from the...
8th Aug 2025
1

Brief items - Static electricity, quantum geometry, Hubbard model, + news

from nanoscale views [alt+shift+b] in science

8th Aug 2025
It's been a busy time that has cut into my blogging, but I wanted to point out some links from the past couple of weeks. Physics Today has a cover article this past issue about what is colloquially known as static electricity, but what is more technically described as...
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Mike Kuniavsky: Our Future in Algorithm Farming Everything will be connected to the network, even things that shouldn’t be. From automobiles to egg...
1st Mar 2018
1

Mike Kuniavsky: Our Future in Algorithm Farming

from Long Now [alt+shift+b] in science

1st Mar 2018
Everything will be connected to the network, even things that shouldn’t be. From automobiles to egg timers, Kuniavsky explains all these devices will try to get our attention and prove their value. They’ll also attempt to predict the future—at least the immediate future of our...
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Libraries of matter Libraries contain books, yes. But they also contain latex rubber, carbon fiber fabrics, and graphene...
29th Aug 2024
1

Libraries of matter

from Works in Progress RSS Feed [alt+shift+b] in science

29th Aug 2024
Libraries contain books, yes. But they also contain latex rubber, carbon fiber fabrics, and graphene aerogel. And in some materials libraries you can cut, cast, drill, sand, scrape, and sculpt too.
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Kevin Kelly: Technium Unbound ## Holos Rising When Kevin Kelly looked up the definition of “superorganism” on Wikipedia, he found...
13th Nov 2014
1

Kevin Kelly: Technium Unbound

from Long Now [alt+shift+b] in science

13th Nov 2014
## Holos Rising When Kevin Kelly looked up the definition of “superorganism” on Wikipedia, he found this: “A collection of agents which can act in concert to produce phenomena governed by the collective.” The source cited was Kevin Kelly, in his 01994 book, Out of Control. His...
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The Traveler and His Baggage On 19 May 1943, a news report from Berlin deepened the already dreary gloom that clung to the people...
3rd Jun 2021
42

The Traveler and His Baggage

from Damn Interesting [alt+shift+b] in science

3rd Jun 2021
On 19 May 1943, a news report from Berlin deepened the already dreary gloom that clung to the people of Nazi-occupied Paris. Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels proudly announced to the world that the German capital of Berlin was officially judenfrei–free of all Jews. As this...
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Inland feeding by coastal godwits Species such as Dunlin and Knot are well-served by conservation measures that aim to protect...
10th Nov 2022
54

Inland feeding by coastal godwits

from wadertales [alt+shift+b] in science

10th Nov 2022
Species such as Dunlin and Knot are well-served by conservation measures that aim to protect estuaries but the same is not necessarily true for Black-tailed Godwits. In a 2022 paper in the journal Wader Study, Clément Jourdan and colleagues describe the movements of ten tagged...
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Just bury your trash What if everything we know about recycling is wrong?
3 weeks ago
1

Just bury your trash

from Works in Progress RSS Feed [alt+shift+b] in science

3 weeks ago
What if everything we know about recycling is wrong?
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Risk-Adjusted Return What are we afraid of?
15th Apr 2026
1

Risk-Adjusted Return

from Asterisk [alt+shift+b] in science

15th Apr 2026
What are we afraid of?
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Tim Flannery: Here on Earth ### Wallace beats Darwin The great insight of natural selection was published simultaneously by...
4th May 2011
1

Tim Flannery: Here on Earth

from Long Now [alt+shift+b] in science

4th May 2011
### Wallace beats Darwin The great insight of natural selection was published simultaneously by Charles Darwin and Alfred Russell Wallace in 1858, Flannery pointed out, but their interpretations of the insight then diverged. Darwin's harsh view of "survival of the fittest" led...
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The Ruthless Liquidity of Modern Love Sex & Relationship Updates, H1 2026
6th May 2026
2

The Ruthless Liquidity of Modern Love

from Uncharted Territories [alt+shift+b] in science

6th May 2026
Sex & Relationship Updates, H1 2026
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The Brain Processes Speech in Parallel With Other Sounds Scientists thought that the brain’s hearing centers might just process speech along with other...
6th Jan 2022
1

The Brain Processes Speech in Parallel With Other Sounds

from The Quanta Podcast [alt+shift+b] in science

6th Jan 2022
Scientists thought that the brain’s hearing centers might just process speech along with other sounds. But new work suggests that speech gets some special treatment very early on. The post The Brain Processes Speech in Parallel With Other Sounds first appeared on...
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Advancing antivenom Snakebites kill between 80,000 and 140,000 people every year. Better antivenom should be a high...
8th Dec 2022
1

Advancing antivenom

from Works in Progress RSS Feed [alt+shift+b] in science

8th Dec 2022
Snakebites kill between 80,000 and 140,000 people every year. Better antivenom should be a high priority – thankfully new technology can help.
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Silicon Valley’s Gold Rush Roots Silicon Valley, purveyor of disruptive technologies, likes to think of itself as sui generis. But...
1st Apr 2024
25

Silicon Valley’s Gold Rush Roots

from Asterisk [alt+shift+b] in science

1st Apr 2024
Silicon Valley, purveyor of disruptive technologies, likes to think of itself as sui generis. But there’s a clear line from tech’s knowledge economy to the Bay Area’s first economy: gold mining.
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When Data Is Missing, Scientists Guess. Then Guess Again. Across the social and biological sciences, statisticians use a technique that leverages randomness...
2nd Oct 2024
69

When Data Is Missing, Scientists Guess. Then Guess Again.

from Quanta Magazine [alt+shift+b] in science

2nd Oct 2024
Across the social and biological sciences, statisticians use a technique that leverages randomness to deal with the unknown. The post When Data Is Missing, Scientists Guess. Then Guess Again. first appeared on Quanta Magazine
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How the Computer Graphics Industry Got Started at the University of Utah Animation has come a long way since 1900, when J. Stuart Blackton created The Enchanted Drawing, the...
9th Jun 2023
30

How the Computer Graphics Industry Got Started at the University of Utah

from IEEE Spectrum [alt+shift+b] in science

9th Jun 2023
Animation has come a long way since 1900, when J. Stuart Blackton created The Enchanted Drawing, the earliest known animated film. The 90-second movie was created using stop-motion techniques, as flat characters, props, and backgrounds were drawn on an easel or made from...
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Reflections of a postgrad lecturer-in-training: Part 1 In a previous post, I mentioned that I was beginning a stint as postgraduate teaching intern at UWA,...
9th Mar 2013
55

Reflections of a postgrad lecturer-in-training: Part 1

from Confessions of a Marine Ecologist [alt+shift+b] in science

9th Mar 2013
In a previous post, I mentioned that I was beginning a stint as postgraduate teaching intern at UWA, and that part of the internship involved keeping a reflective journal.  So I’ve decided that instead of merely writing down my thoughts (and possibly becoming lazy about it as the...
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Gavin Newsom & Stewart Brand: Cities and Time ### Sustainable Cities Mayor Newsom began with how moved he was by hosting the UN's World...
9th Apr 2009
1

Gavin Newsom & Stewart Brand: Cities and Time

from Long Now [alt+shift+b] in science

9th Apr 2009
### Sustainable Cities Mayor Newsom began with how moved he was by hosting the UN's World Environment Day in San Francisco in 2005. For that event, which was called "Green Cities - Plan for the Planet!", he invited 120 mayors from around the world. Days of intense discussion...
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Brittany Cox: Horological Heritage: Generating bird song, magic, and music through mechanism From kings and philosophers to craftsmen and inventors, horology has been prized as an extraordinary...
6th Nov 2019
1

Brittany Cox: Horological Heritage: Generating bird song, magic, and music through mechanism

from Long Now [alt+shift+b] in science

6th Nov 2019
From kings and philosophers to craftsmen and inventors, horology has been prized as an extraordinary marriage between art and science. Antiquarian Horologist Brittany Nicole Cox shared her unique experience with objects born from this lineage. We traced their origins to discover...
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2024 wrapped This year’s review is going to be shorter than 2023 (and previous years) because I’m in Goa right...
31st Dec 2024
121

2024 wrapped

from Inverted Passion [alt+shift+b] in science

31st Dec 2024
This year’s review is going to be shorter than 2023 (and previous years) because I’m in Goa right now for a holiday and I don’t feel like being in front of a screen for long. I mean, just look at this view and tell me that you’d rather be in front of a screen writing… Read...
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How Tech Automated the January 6 Investigations Josh Coker’s Facebook page doesn’t show any MAGA memes or Trump quotes. He wasn’t live-streaming on...
5th Jan 2024
41

How Tech Automated the January 6 Investigations

from IEEE Spectrum [alt+shift+b] in science

5th Jan 2024
Josh Coker’s Facebook page doesn’t show any MAGA memes or Trump quotes. He wasn’t live-streaming on 6 January 2021, and no one has ever stepped forward to identify him as one of the mob that stormed the US Capitol that day. Oregon, Ohio, with five counts connected to the failed...
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Apollo A-002: Testing the Limits of the Launch Escape System One of the more dangerous parts of a space mission is launch which is why almost all crewed...
8th Dec 2024
111

Apollo A-002: Testing the Limits of the Launch Escape System

from Drew Ex Machina [alt+shift+b] in science

8th Dec 2024
One of the more dangerous parts of a space mission is launch which is why almost all crewed spacecraft have had launch abort options to cover […]
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Jared Diamond: How Societies Fail-And Sometimes Succeed ### On failing to think long-term Sophisticated societies from time to time collapse utterly, often...
16th Jul 2005
1

Jared Diamond: How Societies Fail-And Sometimes Succeed

from Long Now [alt+shift+b] in science

16th Jul 2005
### On failing to think long-term Sophisticated societies from time to time collapse utterly, often leaving traces of a civilization that was at a proud peak just before the fall. Other societies facing the same dangers figure out how to adapt around them, recover, and go on to...
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A Cold War Kit for Surviving a Nuclear Attack On 29 August 1949, the Soviet Union successfully tested its first nuclear weapon. Over the next year...
1st Aug 2025
47

A Cold War Kit for Surviving a Nuclear Attack

from IEEE Spectrum [alt+shift+b] in science

1st Aug 2025
On 29 August 1949, the Soviet Union successfully tested its first nuclear weapon. Over the next year and a half, U.S. President Harry S. Truman resurrected the Office of Civilian Defense (which had been abolished at the end of World War II) and signed into law the Federal Civil...
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DOE experimental condensed matter PI meeting, + other items This week I am attending the every-two-years DOE Experimental Condensed Matter Physics PI meeting. ...
8th Sep 2025
1

DOE experimental condensed matter PI meeting, + other items

from nanoscale views [alt+shift+b] in science

8th Sep 2025
This week I am attending the every-two-years DOE Experimental Condensed Matter Physics PI meeting.  Previously I have written up highlights of these meetings (see here, here, here, here, here), though two years I was unable to do so because I was attending virtually.  I will do...
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Carl Sagan, nuking the moon, and not nuking the moon Most of us go about our lives comforted by the thought “I would never drop a nuclear weapon on the...
13th Apr 2024
123

Carl Sagan, nuking the moon, and not nuking the moon

from Eukaryote Writes Blog [alt+shift+b] in science

13th Apr 2024
Most of us go about our lives comforted by the thought “I would never drop a nuclear weapon on the moon.” The truth is that given a lot of power, a nuclear weapon, and a lot of extremely specific circumstances, we too might find ourselves thinking “I should nuke the moon.”
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The call of the Whimbrel The seven-note whistle of the Whimbrel is a classic sound, welcomed by Icelanders at the end of a...
6th Feb 2025
71

The call of the Whimbrel

from wadertales [alt+shift+b] in science

6th Feb 2025
The seven-note whistle of the Whimbrel is a classic sound, welcomed by Icelanders at the end of a long, dark winter. These wonderful waders are responding badly to recent changes to Iceland’s landscape, such as the ever-expanding areas of non-native forestry and power...
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Open Source in Healthcare Is An Opportunity | Out-Of-Pocket Can AI bring the benefits of open source to a slow, sclerotic industry?
6th Mar 2026
1

Open Source in Healthcare Is An Opportunity | Out-Of-Pocket

from Out-of-Pocket Blog [alt+shift+b] in science

6th Mar 2026
Can AI bring the benefits of open source to a slow, sclerotic industry?
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Fossil Discoveries Challenge Ideas About Earth’s Start A series of fossil finds suggests that life on Earth started earlier than anyone thought, calling...
5th Jul 2018
1

Fossil Discoveries Challenge Ideas About Earth’s Start

from The Quanta Podcast [alt+shift+b] in science

5th Jul 2018
A series of fossil finds suggests that life on Earth started earlier than anyone thought, calling into question a widely held theory of the solar system’s beginnings. The post Fossil Discoveries Challenge Ideas About Earth’s Start first appeared on Quanta Magazine
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Learning from their elders A 2026 paper in Animal Behaviour examines how quickly juvenile Black-tailed Godwits(right, with...
5th Feb 2026
1

Learning from their elders

from wadertales [alt+shift+b] in science

5th Feb 2026
A 2026 paper in Animal Behaviour examines how quickly juvenile Black-tailed Godwits(right, with juvenile Redshanks) acquire the feeding skills they will need to get them through their first winter. Josh Nightingale followed the same migration route taken by young birds, as they...
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Rick Prelinger: Lost Landscapes of San Francisco 4 ### Gas Stations, Not Flowers The fourth incarnation of _Lost Landscapes of San Francisco_ played...
5th Dec 2009
1

Rick Prelinger: Lost Landscapes of San Francisco 4

from Long Now [alt+shift+b] in science

5th Dec 2009
### Gas Stations, Not Flowers The fourth incarnation of _Lost Landscapes of San Francisco_ played to a sold out house at the Herbst Theater with the chanteuse Suzanne Ramsey opening the evening with a selection of historical San Francisco songs including the 01926 gem [Masculine...
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Daniel Everett: Endangered languages, lost knowledge and the future ### Language Revolution The Piraha tribe in the heart of the Amazon numbers only 360, spread in...
21st Mar 2009
1

Daniel Everett: Endangered languages, lost knowledge and the future

from Long Now [alt+shift+b] in science

21st Mar 2009
### Language Revolution The Piraha tribe in the heart of the Amazon numbers only 360, spread in small groups over 300 miles. An exceptionally cheerful people, they live with a focus on immediacy, empiricism, and physical rigor that has shaped their unique language, claims...
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Interview: Ted Nordhaus on ecomodernism Are technology and the environment friends or foes? In this wide-ranging conversation, we discuss...
20th May 2021
1

Interview: Ted Nordhaus on ecomodernism

from Works in Progress RSS Feed [alt+shift+b] in science

20th May 2021
Are technology and the environment friends or foes? In this wide-ranging conversation, we discuss climate policy, activism and ecomodernism with Ted Nordhaus.
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Nassim Nicholas Taleb: The Future Has Always Been Crazier Than We Thought ### Dispatches from Extremistan A "black swan," Taleb explained, is an event which is 1) Hard to...
5th Feb 2008
1

Nassim Nicholas Taleb: The Future Has Always Been Crazier Than We Thought

from Long Now [alt+shift+b] in science

5th Feb 2008
### Dispatches from Extremistan A "black swan," Taleb explained, is an event which is 1) Hard to predict; 2) Highly consequential; 3) Wrongly retro-predicted. We pretend we know why the big event happened, and so entrench our inability to deal with the next world-changing...
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What Ultimately Is There? Metaphysics and the Ruliad The Wolfram Institute recently received a grant from the Templeton World Charity Foundation for...
4th Feb 2026
1

What Ultimately Is There? Metaphysics and the Ruliad

from Stephen Wolfram Writings [alt+shift+b] in science

4th Feb 2026
The Wolfram Institute recently received a grant from the Templeton World Charity Foundation for “Computational Metaphysics”. I wrote this piece in part as a launching point for discussions with experts in traditional philosophy. Moving Metaphysics from Philosophy to...
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Powering the Mars base This post is part of the series on space topics. This post is not the last word on this topic. The...
5th Nov 2024
68

Powering the Mars base

from Casey Handmer's blog [alt+shift+b] in science

5th Nov 2024
This post is part of the series on space topics. This post is not the last word on this topic. The usual caveats apply. I’m curious if you have strong opinions on different fuel mixes. A growing Mars base has a prodigious need for power. I’ve previously written two posts on...
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The footprints of every building in NYC The landscape of NYC changes so much that the New York City Office of Technology and Innovation...
20th Jul 2026
2

The footprints of every building in NYC

from Beautiful Public Data [alt+shift+b] in science

20th Jul 2026
The landscape of NYC changes so much that the New York City Office of Technology and Innovation updates a dataset of building footprint shapes weekly.
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AMA | June 2026 Welcome to the June 2026 Ask Me Anything episode of Mindscape! These monthly excursions are funded...
1st Jun 2026
1

AMA | June 2026

from Sean Carroll [alt+shift+b] in science

1st Jun 2026
Welcome to the June 2026 Ask Me Anything episode of Mindscape! These monthly excursions are funded by Patreon supporters (who […]
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Machine Learning’s ‘Amazing’ Ability to Predict Chaos In new computer experiments, artificial-intelligence algorithms can tell the future of chaotic...
14th Feb 2019
1

Machine Learning’s ‘Amazing’ Ability to Predict Chaos

from The Quanta Podcast [alt+shift+b] in science

14th Feb 2019
In new computer experiments, artificial-intelligence algorithms can tell the future of chaotic systems. The post Machine Learning’s ‘Amazing’ Ability to Predict Chaos first appeared on Quanta Magazine
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Meta: 7,000 Although I try to keep navel-gazing to a minimum, I’m happy to report that this publication has...
4th Aug 2026
1

Meta: 7,000

from lcamtuf’s thing [alt+shift+b] in science

4th Aug 2026
Although I try to keep navel-gazing to a minimum, I’m happy to report that this publication has crossed 7,000 email subscribers (plus an unknown number of RSS weirdos).
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In Indonesia’s Rainforest, a Mega-Farm Project Is Plowing Ahead The Indonesian government is fast-tracking a massive agricultural project that is turning 7 million...
2nd Sep 2025
9

In Indonesia’s Rainforest, a Mega-Farm Project Is Plowing Ahead

from Yale E360 [alt+shift+b] in science

2nd Sep 2025
The Indonesian government is fast-tracking a massive agricultural project that is turning 7 million acres of tropical forest into rice and sugarcane farms. Critics say it is the world’s largest deforestation project and would upend the lives of thousands of Indigenous...
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Beth Noveck: Transparent Government ### Dot.Gov Noveck began with the example of patents, first devised in Renaissance Florence and...
5th Mar 2010
1

Beth Noveck: Transparent Government

from Long Now [alt+shift+b] in science

5th Mar 2010
### Dot.Gov Noveck began with the example of patents, first devised in Renaissance Florence and Venice to protect techniques such as glass manufacture. In England, conferring a monopoly on a tool or technique became a prerogative of the king. In contemporary America, the process...
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367 | Jared Diamond on the Course of History and the Role of Leaders The course of history is affected by many things, including the political and social situations of...
2 weeks ago
1

367 | Jared Diamond on the Course of History and the Role of Leaders

from Sean Carroll [alt+shift+b] in science

2 weeks ago
The course of history is affected by many things, including the political and social situations of large groups of people, […]
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Good posts from the Inkhaven blogging residency Cannot stress this enough: literally everyone at the writing residency was good at this. Maybe...
28th Feb 2026
1

Good posts from the Inkhaven blogging residency

from Eukaryote Writes Blog [alt+shift+b] in science

28th Feb 2026
Cannot stress this enough: literally everyone at the writing residency was good at this. Maybe you'll find a new favorite blog among these.
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The Art of Asking Questions Everyone seems to agree that self-report questions are fraught with lies, biases, errors, and other...
1st Dec 2024
43

The Art of Asking Questions

from Asterisk [alt+shift+b] in science

1st Dec 2024
Everyone seems to agree that self-report questions are fraught with lies, biases, errors, and other inaccuracies. We all use them anyway. How can we ask them better?
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The ultra-selfish gene We now have the power to genetically modify entire species by inserting certain genes into them with...
3rd Sep 2024
1

The ultra-selfish gene

from Works in Progress RSS Feed [alt+shift+b] in science

3rd Sep 2024
We now have the power to genetically modify entire species by inserting certain genes into them with brute force. Doing this to malaria-carrying mosquitoes could allow us to wipe out humanity’s most deadly killer.
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Neutrinos Lead to Unexpected Discovery in Basic Math Three physicists stumbled across an unexpected relationship between some of the most ubiquitous...
8th Oct 2020
1

Neutrinos Lead to Unexpected Discovery in Basic Math

from The Quanta Podcast [alt+shift+b] in science

8th Oct 2020
Three physicists stumbled across an unexpected relationship between some of the most ubiquitous objects in math. The post Neutrinos Lead to Unexpected Discovery in Basic Math first appeared on Quanta Magazine
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6 Questions You Asked Yourself about Solar How fast will it take over, how fast are costs shrinking, why is it so cheap, what industries will...
2nd Nov 2024
43

6 Questions You Asked Yourself about Solar

from Uncharted Territories [alt+shift+b] in science

2nd Nov 2024
How fast will it take over, how fast are costs shrinking, why is it so cheap, what industries will it birth, how much surface will it take up, where will it appear first?
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Nearly Half of Wolves in Italy Are Now Part Dog Italy has seen a growing number of wolf-dog hybrids, raising concerns about the future of its...
1st May 2026
1

Nearly Half of Wolves in Italy Are Now Part Dog

from Yale E360 [alt+shift+b] in science

1st May 2026
Italy has seen a growing number of wolf-dog hybrids, raising concerns about the future of its wolves. Read more on E360 →
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UK waders: “Into the Red” If you ask British birdwatchers to name the eleven wader species that are causing the most...
4th Oct 2022
55

UK waders: “Into the Red”

from wadertales [alt+shift+b] in science

4th Oct 2022
If you ask British birdwatchers to name the eleven wader species that are causing the most conservation concern in the UK, they would probably not include Dunlin. Curlew may well be top of their lists, even though the most recent population estimate is 58,500 breeding pairs, but...
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Where Geniuses Hide Today Where are today’s Michelangelos?
6th Dec 2024
49

Where Geniuses Hide Today

from Uncharted Territories [alt+shift+b] in science

6th Dec 2024
Where are today’s Michelangelos?
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George P. Shultz: Perspective Perspective? No one has a longer or better-informed view of world affairs and America's role than...
2nd Aug 2018
1

George P. Shultz: Perspective

from Long Now [alt+shift+b] in science

2nd Aug 2018
Perspective? No one has a longer or better-informed view of world affairs and America's role than George Shultz, now 97. (Henry Kissinger is only 95.) Secretary Shultz was a US Marine Captain in World War II. After becoming an economics professor at MIT and the University of...
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When ChatGPT Broke an Entire Field The study of natural language processing, or NLP, dates back to the 1940s. It gave Stephen Hawking a...
29th Jul 2025
1

When ChatGPT Broke an Entire Field

from The Quanta Podcast [alt+shift+b] in science

29th Jul 2025
The study of natural language processing, or NLP, dates back to the 1940s. It gave Stephen Hawking a voice, Siri a brain and social media companies another way to target us with ads. In less than five years, large language models broke NLP and made it anew. The Quanta Podcast,...
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Nicole’s guide to interviewing for faculty positions Snow is haunting weather forecasts, home owners are taking down Christmas lights, stores are...
5th Jan 2026
1

Nicole’s guide to interviewing for faculty positions

from Quantum Frontiers [alt+shift+b] in science

5th Jan 2026
Snow is haunting weather forecasts, home owners are taking down Christmas lights, stores are discounting exercise equipment, and faculty-hiring committees are winnowing down applications. In-person interviews often take place between January and March but can extend from December...
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Benjamin Bratton: A Philosophy of Planetary Computation We find ourselves in a pre-paradigmatic moment in which our technology has outpaced our theories of...
20th Mar 2025
1

Benjamin Bratton: A Philosophy of Planetary Computation

from Long Now [alt+shift+b] in science

20th Mar 2025
We find ourselves in a pre-paradigmatic moment in which our technology has outpaced our theories of what to do with it. The task of philosophy today is to catch up. In his Long Now Talk, Philosopher of Technology Benjamin Bratton took us on a whirlwind philosophical journey...
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Typography Styles & Element Examples Font Sizes A A A A A A A A 6rem (96px) 5rem (80px) 3rem (48px) 2.25rem (36px) 1.5rem (24px)...
18th Feb 2019
1

Typography Styles & Element Examples

from Peder M. Isager [alt+shift+b] in science

18th Feb 2019
Font Sizes A A A A A A A A 6rem (96px) 5rem (80px) 3rem (48px) 2.25rem (36px) 1.5rem (24px) 1.25rem (20px) 1rem (16px) .875rem (14px) Type Samples Head­line Sub­head­line Level 1 Heading One page to rule them all...well, not really. This page displays sample typography and page...
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Estimating a Difference of Products Wow, it’s been a long time! Both since my last blog post, and since my last quick analysis trick....
28th Aug 2023
30

Estimating a Difference of Products

from Chris Grossack's Blog [alt+shift+b] in science

28th Aug 2023
Wow, it’s been a long time! Both since my last blog post, and since my last quick analysis trick. But I’ve been itching to write more blog posts lately, and I thought that something quick and easy like this would be a good way to get back into it without the kind of effort...
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At 17, Hannah Cairo Solved a Major Math Mystery After finding the homeschooling life confining, the teen petitioned her way into a graduate class at...
1st Aug 2025
52

At 17, Hannah Cairo Solved a Major Math Mystery

from Quanta Magazine [alt+shift+b] in science

1st Aug 2025
After finding the homeschooling life confining, the teen petitioned her way into a graduate class at Berkeley, where she ended up disproving a 40-year-old conjecture. The post At 17, Hannah Cairo Solved a Major Math Mystery first appeared on Quanta Magazine
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The Ruin of Mumbai Mumbai’s land use regulations are designed to keep population density low. Instead, they force...
1st Mar 2024
41

The Ruin of Mumbai

from Asterisk [alt+shift+b] in science

1st Mar 2024
Mumbai’s land use regulations are designed to keep population density low. Instead, they force Mumbaikars into slums, while all of India pays the price.
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The New TIGR-Tas Gene Editing System Remember CRISPR (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats) – that new gene-editing...
3rd Mar 2025
52

The New TIGR-Tas Gene Editing System

from NeuroLogica Blog [alt+shift+b] in science

3rd Mar 2025
Remember CRISPR (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats) – that new gene-editing system which is faster and cheaper than anything that came before it? CRISPR is derived from bacterial systems which uses guide RNA to target a specific sequence on a DNA strand....
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Finiteness in Sheaf Topoi The notion of “finiteness” is constructively subtle in ways that can be tricky for people new to...
19th Aug 2024
91

Finiteness in Sheaf Topoi

from Chris Grossack's Blog [alt+shift+b] in science

19th Aug 2024
The notion of “finiteness” is constructively subtle in ways that can be tricky for people new to the subject to understand. For a while now I’ve wanted to figure out what’s going on with the different versions of “finite” in a way that felt concrete and obvious (I mentioned...
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David Rumsey: Mapping Time ### Maps and time David Rumsey's spectacularly illustrated lecture, "Mapping Time" is not just...
15th May 2004
1

David Rumsey: Mapping Time

from Long Now [alt+shift+b] in science

15th May 2004
### Maps and time David Rumsey's spectacularly illustrated lecture, "Mapping Time" is not just about maps. It is the future of data and knowledge handling. People literally gasp at the things Rumsey shows can be done. I love it when techies, artists, and historians all gasp at...
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Little ray of sunshine A common saying goes, you should never meet your heroes, because they’ll disappoint you. But you...
28th Jul 2025
33

Little ray of sunshine

from Quantum Frontiers [alt+shift+b] in science

28th Jul 2025
A common saying goes, you should never meet your heroes, because they’ll disappoint you. But you shouldn’t trust every common saying; some heroes impress you more, the better you know them. Ray Laflamme was such a hero. I first heard … Continue reading →
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Predation of juvenile reef fish in coral patches at Ningaloo Reef The second research article I have decided to discuss is one I had the pleasure to be involved with!...
11th Feb 2013
61

Predation of juvenile reef fish in coral patches at Ningaloo Reef

from Confessions of a Marine Ecologist [alt+shift+b] in science

11th Feb 2013
The second research article I have decided to discuss is one I had the pleasure to be involved with!  In fact, it was the first paper I was a co-author on, after linking up with the Department of Environment and Conservation through an ANNiMS internship program.  The paper was...
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Light-Triggered Genes Reveal the Hidden Workings of Memory Nobel laureate Susumu Tonegawa’s lab is overturning old assumptions about how memories form, how...
7th Jun 2018
1

Light-Triggered Genes Reveal the Hidden Workings of Memory

from The Quanta Podcast [alt+shift+b] in science

7th Jun 2018
Nobel laureate Susumu Tonegawa’s lab is overturning old assumptions about how memories form, how recall works and whether lost memories might be restored from "silent engrams." The post Light-Triggered Genes Reveal the Hidden Workings of Memory first appeared on...
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The Thoughts of a Spiderweb Spiders appear to offload cognitive tasks to their webs, making them one of a number of species with...
13th Jul 2017
1

The Thoughts of a Spiderweb

from The Quanta Podcast [alt+shift+b] in science

13th Jul 2017
Spiders appear to offload cognitive tasks to their webs, making them one of a number of species with a mind that isn’t fully confined within the head. The post The Thoughts of a Spiderweb first appeared on Quanta Magazine
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Walter Mischel: The Marshmallow Test: Mastering Self-Control ### Thinking hot and cool **In the 1960s, Mischel** and colleagues at Stanford launched a series of...
3rd May 2016
1

Walter Mischel: The Marshmallow Test: Mastering Self-Control

from Long Now [alt+shift+b] in science

3rd May 2016
### Thinking hot and cool **In the 1960s, Mischel** and colleagues at Stanford launched a series of delayed-gratification experiments with young children using a method that later came to be known as “the marshmallow test.” A researcher whom the child knew and trusted, after...
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South Pole Water Infrastructure Fresh water from snow, at 70 below!
8th Jun 2024
146

South Pole Water Infrastructure

from brr [alt+shift+b] in science

8th Jun 2024
Fresh water from snow, at 70 below!
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The evolution of bacteria Generations of microbes evolve in hours, not millennia. By speeding up Darwin’s clock, scientists...
5th Nov 2025
1

The evolution of bacteria

from Works in Progress RSS Feed [alt+shift+b] in science

5th Nov 2025
Generations of microbes evolve in hours, not millennia. By speeding up Darwin’s clock, scientists have watched evolution happen in real time, and it’s changed how we understand natural selection.
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Maya Tudor: Can Nationalism be a Resource for Democracy? A political scientist examines how foundational nationalisms affect democracy globally, using...
6th May 2019
1

Maya Tudor: Can Nationalism be a Resource for Democracy?

from Long Now [alt+shift+b] in science

6th May 2019
A political scientist examines how foundational nationalisms affect democracy globally, using countries like India and Myanmar to illustrate that some kinds of nationalism can be an essential resource for protecting democracy. Maya Tudor is a comparative political scientist...
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Do Apes Have a Theory of Mind Designing research studies to determine what is going on inside the minds of animals is extremely...
4th Feb 2025
47

Do Apes Have a Theory of Mind

from NeuroLogica Blog [alt+shift+b] in science

4th Feb 2025
Designing research studies to determine what is going on inside the minds of animals is extremely challenging. The literature is littered with past studies that failed to properly control for all variables and thereby overinterpreted the results. The challenge is that we cannot...
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High-Temperature Superconductivity Understood at Last A new atomic-scale experiment all but settles the origin of the strong form of superconductivity...
1st Feb 2023
1

High-Temperature Superconductivity Understood at Last

from The Quanta Podcast [alt+shift+b] in science

1st Feb 2023
A new atomic-scale experiment all but settles the origin of the strong form of superconductivity seen in cuprate crystals, confirming a 35-year-old theory. Read more at QuantaMagazine.org. Music is “Quasi Motion” by Kevin MacLeod.
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Peter Calthorpe: Urban Planet Throughout Peter Calthorpe's decade-spanning career in urban design, planning, and architecture, he...
6th Aug 2020
1

Peter Calthorpe: Urban Planet

from Long Now [alt+shift+b] in science

6th Aug 2020
Throughout Peter Calthorpe's decade-spanning career in urban design, planning, and architecture, he has developed and practiced the key principles of [New Urbanism](https://www.cnu.org/resources/what-new-urbanism): that the most successful places are diverse in uses and users,...
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Proposing a theory committee at the Psychological Science Accelerator (written in collaboration with Nicholas A. Coles) The Psychological Science Accelerator (PSA) is a...
25th Aug 2019
1

Proposing a theory committee at the Psychological Science Accelerator

from Peder M. Isager [alt+shift+b] in science

25th Aug 2019
(written in collaboration with Nicholas A. Coles) The Psychological Science Accelerator (PSA) is a global network of psychological laboratories that organizes large-scale empirical research projects. The organization aims “to accelerate the accumulation of reliable and...
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Critical Forecasts from Space: “Tech & Space Leaders Show” with Lisa Dreher While my Gentle Readers are well aware of my decades of writing on space-related topics, I also have...
8th Aug 2026
1

Critical Forecasts from Space: “Tech & Space Leaders Show” with Lisa Dreher

from Drew Ex Machina [alt+shift+b] in science

8th Aug 2026
While my Gentle Readers are well aware of my decades of writing on space-related topics, I also have a day job as the Chief Scientist of […]
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Ken Dychtwald: The Consequences of Human Life Extension ### What long life means Ken Dychtwald gave a terrific talk Friday evening to a standing-room...
4th Dec 2004
1

Ken Dychtwald: The Consequences of Human Life Extension

from Long Now [alt+shift+b] in science

4th Dec 2004
### What long life means Ken Dychtwald gave a terrific talk Friday evening to a standing-room audience on "The Consequences of Human Life Extension." The growing--and soon overwhelming--prevalence of the old in developed nations is leading to a "new old." Ken described meeting...
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Eukaryote Skips Town – why I’m leaving DC I’m hesitant to write this piece because it’s directly about my EA ambitions, and I’ve talked to a...
26th Mar 2025
63

Eukaryote Skips Town – why I’m leaving DC

from Eukaryote Writes Blog [alt+shift+b] in science

26th Mar 2025
I’m hesitant to write this piece because it’s directly about my EA ambitions, and I’ve talked to a lot of EAs trying to get into biosecurity who want advice, and I have no idea what they should take away from my story or if any of this should be taken as any kind of advice.
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Modelling my brain A 22 hour medical experiment breathing 12% oxygen, and the 7000 images of my brain that came out of...
29th Mar 2021
31

Modelling my brain

from Interaction Magic - George Cave [alt+shift+b] in science

29th Mar 2021
A 22 hour medical experiment breathing 12% oxygen, and the 7000 images of my brain that came out of it.
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Redeployment Part One Emerging from winter and preparing for our first flight!
10th Jan 2024
59

Redeployment Part One

from brr [alt+shift+b] in science

10th Jan 2024
Emerging from winter and preparing for our first flight!
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Niall Ferguson & Peter Schwartz: Historian vs. Futurist on Human Progress ### Past vs. Future In what turned out to be a riveting evening, historian Niall Ferguson and...
29th Apr 2008
1

Niall Ferguson & Peter Schwartz: Historian vs. Futurist on Human Progress

from Long Now [alt+shift+b] in science

29th Apr 2008
### Past vs. Future In what turned out to be a riveting evening, historian Niall Ferguson and futurist Peter Schwartz fire-hosed each other with enough ideas, frames of reference, ripostes, and eloquences to lead to a clear conceptual divergence. At the same time, the two were...
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Sunset Hunkering down for the winter!
9th Apr 2023
66

Sunset

from brr [alt+shift+b] in science

9th Apr 2023
Hunkering down for the winter!
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Table tennis scoreboard Last year, my uncles asked me to design an electronic table tennis scoreboard. Apparently, what they...
11th Nov 2025
1

Table tennis scoreboard

from Willem Pennings [alt+shift+b] in science

11th Nov 2025
Last year, my uncles asked me to design an electronic table tennis scoreboard. Apparently, what they wanted wasn’t for sale (at least not in New Zealand). Since they’re very enthusiastic about the game, I agreed and created a design. It features: I’m using an ESP32...
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George Dyson, Freeman Dyson, & Esther Dyson: The Difficulty of Looking Far Ahead ### Finessing the future Instead of one podium there were four chairs on the stage of Wednesday's...
6th Oct 2005
1

George Dyson, Freeman Dyson, & Esther Dyson: The Difficulty of Looking Far Ahead

from Long Now [alt+shift+b] in science

6th Oct 2005
### Finessing the future Instead of one podium there were four chairs on the stage of Wednesday's seminar. In three seats, three Dysons: Esther, George and Freeman. They were appearing together on stage for the first time. The fourth held Stewart Brand who led the three through...
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The First Day
1st Apr 2025
18

The First Day

from Asterisk [alt+shift+b] in science

1st Apr 2025
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David Eagleman: Six Easy Steps to Avert the Collapse of Civilization ### Averting Collapse Civilizations always think they're immortal, Eagleman noted, but they nearly...
2nd Apr 2010
1

David Eagleman: Six Easy Steps to Avert the Collapse of Civilization

from Long Now [alt+shift+b] in science

2nd Apr 2010
### Averting Collapse Civilizations always think they're immortal, Eagleman noted, but they nearly always perish, leaving "nothing but ruins and scattered genetics." It takes luck and new technology to survive. We may be particularly lucky to have Internet technology to help...
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USAF Project Able-1: The First Attempt to Reach the Moon In the years leading up to the beginning of the Space Age, there were many studies made in the West...
17th Aug 2022
47

USAF Project Able-1: The First Attempt to Reach the Moon

from Drew Ex Machina [alt+shift+b] in science

17th Aug 2022
In the years leading up to the beginning of the Space Age, there were many studies made in the West about lunar missions which gripped the […]
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Ten lessons I learned from John Preskill Last August, Toronto’s Centre for Quantum Information and Quantum Control (CQIQC) gave me 35 minutes...
20th Jan 2025
96

Ten lessons I learned from John Preskill

from Quantum Frontiers [alt+shift+b] in science

20th Jan 2025
Last August, Toronto’s Centre for Quantum Information and Quantum Control (CQIQC) gave me 35 minutes to make fun of John Preskill in public. CQIQC was hosting its biannual conference, also called CQIQC, in Toronto. The conference features the awarding of … Continue reading →
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Nadia Asparouhova: The Making and Maintenance of our Open Source Infrastructure Nadia Asparouhova is particularly interested in infrastructure, governance, and the economics of the...
10th Dec 2020
1

Nadia Asparouhova: The Making and Maintenance of our Open Source Infrastructure

from Long Now [alt+shift+b] in science

10th Dec 2020
Nadia Asparouhova is particularly interested in infrastructure, governance, and the economics of the internet - and how the dynamics of these subjects play out in software, online communities and generally living life online. Asparouhova, who interviewed hundreds of developers...
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Brain’s ‘Background Noise’ May Hold Clues to Persistent Mysteries By digging out signals hidden within the brain’s electrical chatter, scientists are getting new...
13th May 2021
1

Brain’s ‘Background Noise’ May Hold Clues to Persistent Mysteries

from The Quanta Podcast [alt+shift+b] in science

13th May 2021
By digging out signals hidden within the brain’s electrical chatter, scientists are getting new insights into sleep, aging and more. The post Brain’s ‘Background Noise’ May Hold Clues to Persistent Mysteries first appeared on Quanta Magazine
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I guess we’re doing Moon factories now A quick note collating a list of blogs I’ve written on the topic. I’ll update it with good third...
10th Feb 2026
2

I guess we’re doing Moon factories now

from Casey Handmer's blog [alt+shift+b] in science

10th Feb 2026
A quick note collating a list of blogs I’ve written on the topic. I’ll update it with good third party write ups as I become aware of them. Context: SpaceX announced a refocus on lunar development. My best explanation for this is that SpaceX wants to accelerate human occupation...
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The Lunar Tourist Attraction the Artemis Astronauts Will be Looking For I hope you are allowing the trip four humans are taking around the Moon to distract you a bit from...
7th Apr 2026
1

The Lunar Tourist Attraction the Artemis Astronauts Will be Looking For

from Andrew Fraknoi – Astronomy Lectures – Astronomy Education Resources [alt+shift+b] in science

7th Apr 2026
I hope you are allowing the trip four humans are taking around the Moon to distract you a bit from all the problems we are facing down here on Earth! Artemis II is mostly designed to test the engineering of the Orion spacecraft and all the systems that keep humans alive.  The...
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First Pictures: Earthrise from Apollo 8 – December 24, 1968 The year 1968 was a tumultuous one in the US with many political and cultural changes punctuated by...
24th Dec 2023
74

First Pictures: Earthrise from Apollo 8 – December 24, 1968

from Drew Ex Machina [alt+shift+b] in science

24th Dec 2023
The year 1968 was a tumultuous one in the US with many political and cultural changes punctuated by the assassination of prominent public figures, violent protests […]
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Scaling Career and Family: Systems Thinking, Public School, Home Enrichment Originally posted on November 29, 2025 by Dr. Christine Corbett Moran When asked on The Cheeky Pint...
3rd Dec 2025
1

Scaling Career and Family: Systems Thinking, Public School, Home Enrichment

from Casey Handmer's blog [alt+shift+b] in science

3rd Dec 2025
Originally posted on November 29, 2025 by Dr. Christine Corbett Moran When asked on The Cheeky Pint podcast how we educate our children, my husband Casey Handmer replied “benign neglect.” It’s a cheeky answer that captures something real: we’re neither tiger nor helicopter...
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The Unlimited Horizon, part 2 Previously: The Unlimited Horizon, part 1. Is there really that much more progress to be made in the...
27th Aug 2025
1

The Unlimited Horizon, part 2

from The Roots of Progress [alt+shift+b] in science

27th Aug 2025
Previously: The Unlimited Horizon, part 1. Is there really that much more progress to be made in the future? How many problems are left to solve? How much better could life really get? After all, we are pretty comfortable today. We have electricity, clean running water, heating...
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Eternal Change for No Energy: A Time Crystal Finally Made Real Like a perpetual motion machine, a time crystal forever cycles between states without consuming...
14th Oct 2021
1

Eternal Change for No Energy: A Time Crystal Finally Made Real

from The Quanta Podcast [alt+shift+b] in science

14th Oct 2021
Like a perpetual motion machine, a time crystal forever cycles between states without consuming energy. Physicists claim to have built this new phase of matter inside a quantum computer.
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Defending against hypothetical moon life during Apollo 11 This is how a completely abstract argument about alien germs was taken seriously and mitigated at...
7th Jan 2024
113

Defending against hypothetical moon life during Apollo 11

from Eukaryote Writes Blog [alt+shift+b] in science

7th Jan 2024
This is how a completely abstract argument about alien germs was taken seriously and mitigated at great effort and expense during the 1969 Apollo landing.
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How to write for Works in Progress We’re looking for new authors and article pitches.
4th Apr 2025
1

How to write for Works in Progress

from Works in Progress RSS Feed [alt+shift+b] in science

4th Apr 2025
We’re looking for new authors and article pitches.
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A Month In Northern Peru, Part 10: The Owlet Lodge (February 11 and 12, 2024) February 11, 2024 Laura and I were looking forward to our one-night visit to the Owlet Lodge. Up to...
20th Jul 2024
27

A Month In Northern Peru, Part 10: The Owlet Lodge (February 11 and 12, 2024)

from Explorations of an Ecologist [alt+shift+b] in science

20th Jul 2024
February 11, 2024 Laura and I were looking forward to our one-night visit to the Owlet Lodge. Up to this point we had only stayed at cheap hotels, while we had also eaten simply, with at least two meals each day consisting of sandwiches/snacks that we prepared. For once, someone...
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A Course Via Zoom on Atomic Science for Everyone I am teaching a new Zoom course on the mysterious world of the atom, with lots of visuals and no...
20th Sep 2025
36

A Course Via Zoom on Atomic Science for Everyone

from Andrew Fraknoi – Astronomy Lectures – Astronomy Education Resources [alt+shift+b] in science

20th Sep 2025
I am teaching a new Zoom course on the mysterious world of the atom, with lots of visuals and no math. It’s a six-week class for retired people: Join me for a richly illustrated tour of the atomic world that lies beneath our everyday conception of reality. Using historical...
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A (quantum) complex legacy Early in the fourth year of my PhD, I received a most John-ish email from John Preskill, my PhD...
30th Jan 2023
55

A (quantum) complex legacy

from Quantum Frontiers [alt+shift+b] in science

30th Jan 2023
Early in the fourth year of my PhD, I received a most John-ish email from John Preskill, my PhD advisor. The title read, “thermodynamics of complexity,” and the message was concise the way that the Amazon River is damp: “Might … Continue reading →
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Michael Tubbs: Upsetting the Setup: Creating a California for All Governance moves slow. The work of the politician and the public servant ought to inherently be...
16th Aug 2022
1

Michael Tubbs: Upsetting the Setup: Creating a California for All

from Long Now [alt+shift+b] in science

16th Aug 2022
Governance moves slow. The work of the politician and the public servant ought to inherently be one of long-term thinking — of taking in concerns both urgent and longstanding and crafting solutions to them that will live on beyond any official’s term of office. As Mayor of...
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Multiple Regression with StatsModels This is the third is a series of excerpts from Elements of Data Science which available from...
4th Dec 2024
24

Multiple Regression with StatsModels

from Probably Overthinking It [alt+shift+b] in science

4th Dec 2024
This is the third is a series of excerpts from Elements of Data Science which available from Lulu.com and online booksellers. It’s from Chapter 10, which is about multiple regression. You can read the complete chapter here, or run the Jupyter notebook on Colab. In the previous...
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Stewart Brand: Reviving Extinct Species ### De-extinction begins The new tools of synthetic biology, I began, are about to liberate...
22nd May 2013
1

Stewart Brand: Reviving Extinct Species

from Long Now [alt+shift+b] in science

22nd May 2013
### De-extinction begins The new tools of synthetic biology, I began, are about to liberate conservation in a spectacular way. It is becoming possible to bring some extinct species back to life. A project within Long Now called “Revive & Restore” is pushing to make...
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What I’ve been reading, September 2023 A quasi-monthly feature. Recent blog posts and news stories are generally omitted; you can find them...
6th Sep 2023
313

What I’ve been reading, September 2023

from The Roots of Progress | Articles [alt+shift+b] in science

6th Sep 2023
A quasi-monthly feature. Recent blog posts and news stories are generally omitted; you can find them in my links digests. I’ve been busy helping to choose the first cohort of our blogging fellowship, so my reading has been relatively light. All emphasis in bold in the quotes...
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Interaction20 Round-up Summary of all the amazing, curious and challenging ideas from last week's IXDA Interaction 20...
13th Feb 2020
22

Interaction20 Round-up

from Interaction Magic - George Cave [alt+shift+b] in science

13th Feb 2020
Summary of all the amazing, curious and challenging ideas from last week's IXDA Interaction 20 conference.
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Ants Live 10 Times Longer by Altering Their Insulin Responses Queen ants live far longer than genetically identical workers. Researchers are learning what their...
7th Jun 2023
1

Ants Live 10 Times Longer by Altering Their Insulin Responses

from The Quanta Podcast [alt+shift+b] in science

7th Jun 2023
Queen ants live far longer than genetically identical workers. Researchers are learning what their longevity secrets could mean for aging in other species. Read more at QuantaMagazine.org. Music is “Good Times” by Patrick Patrikios.
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Why we duel Duels can be brutal and even lethal. But duels emerged in societies around the world for an...
21st Apr 2022
1

Why we duel

from Works in Progress RSS Feed [alt+shift+b] in science

21st Apr 2022
Duels can be brutal and even lethal. But duels emerged in societies around the world for an important reason: to control and manage violence, not just to celebrate it.
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Stefan Kröpelin: Civilization’s Mysterious Desert Cradle ### The Sahara and civilization “Almost everything breaks in the desert,” Kröpelin began. He showed...
11th Jun 2014
1

Stefan Kröpelin: Civilization’s Mysterious Desert Cradle

from Long Now [alt+shift+b] in science

11th Jun 2014
### The Sahara and civilization “Almost everything breaks in the desert,” Kröpelin began. He showed trucks mired in sand, one vehicle blown up by a land mine, and a Unimog with an impossibly, hopelessly broken axle. (Using the attached backhoe, it hunched its way 50 miles back...
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Kim Stanley Robinson: How Climate Will Evolve Government and Society Humanity’s adaptation to climate change will require novel, global cooperation and societal...
1st Aug 2017
1

Kim Stanley Robinson: How Climate Will Evolve Government and Society

from Long Now [alt+shift+b] in science

1st Aug 2017
Humanity’s adaptation to climate change will require novel, global cooperation and societal evolution. The award-winning science fiction author of _2312_ , the _Mars_ Trilogy, and _Aurora_ shares his vision for how the world must change in advance of his 02017 novel _New York...
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Philip Rosedale: 'Second Life:' What Do We Learn If We Digitize EVERYTHING? ### 2nd Life takes off What is real life coming to owe digital life? After a couple years in the...
1st Dec 2006
2

Philip Rosedale: 'Second Life:' What Do We Learn If We Digitize EVERYTHING?

from Long Now [alt+shift+b] in science

1st Dec 2006
### 2nd Life takes off What is real life coming to owe digital life? After a couple years in the flat part of exponential growth, the steep part is now arriving for the massive multi-player online world construction kit called "Second Life." With 1.7 million accounts,...
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Cambodian Forest Defenders at Risk for Exposing Illegal Logging The lush forests that have long sustained Cambodia’s Indigenous people have steadily fallen to...
2nd Jun 2025
6

Cambodian Forest Defenders at Risk for Exposing Illegal Logging

from Yale E360 [alt+shift+b] in science

2nd Jun 2025
The lush forests that have long sustained Cambodia’s Indigenous people have steadily fallen to illicit logging. Now, community members face intimidation and risk arrest as they patrol their forests to document the losses and try to push the government to stop the cutting. Read...
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Computer Scientists Break Traveling Salesperson Record After 44 years, there’s finally a better way to find approximate solutions to the notoriously...
7th Jan 2021
1

Computer Scientists Break Traveling Salesperson Record

from The Quanta Podcast [alt+shift+b] in science

7th Jan 2021
After 44 years, there’s finally a better way to find approximate solutions to the notoriously difficult traveling salesperson problem. The post Computer Scientists Break Traveling Salesperson Record first appeared on Quanta Magazine
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An Empty Product of Nonempty Sets A few days ago I saw a cute question on mse asking about a particularly non-intuitive failing of...
4th Jun 2025
43

An Empty Product of Nonempty Sets

from Chris Grossack's Blog [alt+shift+b] in science

4th Jun 2025
A few days ago I saw a cute question on mse asking about a particularly non-intuitive failing of the axiom of choice. I remember when I was an undergrad talking to a friend of mine about various statements equivalent to choice, and being particularly hung up on the same...
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Notes on doing science and research I know it’s been awfully quiet here. I’ve not posted for a while. But I’ve been writing prolifically...
23rd Oct 2025
28

Notes on doing science and research

from Inverted Passion [alt+shift+b] in science

23rd Oct 2025
I know it’s been awfully quiet here. I’ve not posted for a while. But I’ve been writing prolifically somewhere else. Earlier this year, I started an AI lab called Lossfunk and that is what has kept me (happily) busy. We have a newsletter there called Lossfunk Letters where I...
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Problems with the Institute Of Noetic Sciences I was interviewed recently for a Daily Beast article on recent research involving the Institute of...
1st May 2023
85

Problems with the Institute Of Noetic Sciences

from NeuroLogica Blog [alt+shift+b] in science

1st May 2023
I was interviewed recently for a Daily Beast article on recent research involving the Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS). Overall the article is very good, and author Maddie Bender was fair and reasonable in how I was quoted. I can’t always take that as a given. No matter how...
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New atlas charts a path for a landscape in crisis
6th May 2026
1

New atlas charts a path for a landscape in crisis

from Conservation International [alt+shift+b] in science

6th May 2026
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Drew Endy: The iGEM Revolution ## Massively collaborative synthetic biology Natural genomes are nearly impossible to figure out,...
17th Sep 2014
1

Drew Endy: The iGEM Revolution

from Long Now [alt+shift+b] in science

17th Sep 2014
## Massively collaborative synthetic biology Natural genomes are nearly impossible to figure out, Endy began, because they were evolved, not designed. Everything is context dependent, tangled, and often unique. So most biotech efforts become herculean. It cost $25 million to...
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The Makeup of Red Dwarf Solar Systems May Seriously Limit the Formation of Habitable Planets Jupiter is often described as the “big brother” planet of our solar system that made the formation...
7th Jun 2023
38

The Makeup of Red Dwarf Solar Systems May Seriously Limit the Formation of Habitable Planets

from Many Worlds [alt+shift+b] in science

7th Jun 2023
Jupiter is often described as the “big brother” planet of our solar system that made the formation and evolution of Earth possible. In the early days of the solar system, massive Jupiter helped the planet grow rapidly while serving as a gravity well that shielded the planet from...
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Four one-sided test of significance (FOST). Dear reader, does this make sense? In this blog post I propose a four one-sided test of significance (FOST) that can be used to test...
24th May 2024
1

Four one-sided test of significance (FOST). Dear reader, does this make sense?

from Peder M. Isager [alt+shift+b] in science

24th May 2024
In this blog post I propose a four one-sided test of significance (FOST) that can be used to test whether an effect is smaller than OR larger than OR equivalent to the smallest effect size of interest. I lay out the general setup and interpretation of FOST, and ask readers to...
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Why didn’t suicides rise during Covid? Covid-19 brought death, suffering and financial straits, so it was unsurprising that depression rose...
20th May 2021
1

Why didn’t suicides rise during Covid?

from Works in Progress RSS Feed [alt+shift+b] in science

20th May 2021
Covid-19 brought death, suffering and financial straits, so it was unsurprising that depression rose around the world. But when the data came in, we found suicide did not – and it’s a mystery why.
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Deep Learning Poised to 'Blow Up' Famed Fluid Equations For centuries, mathematicians have tried to prove that Euler’s fluid equations can produce...
3rd Aug 2022
1

Deep Learning Poised to 'Blow Up' Famed Fluid Equations

from The Quanta Podcast [alt+shift+b] in science

3rd Aug 2022
For centuries, mathematicians have tried to prove that Euler’s fluid equations can produce nonsensical answers. A new approach to machine learning has researchers betting that “blowup” is near. Read more at quantamagazine.org. Music is “Pulse” by Geographer.
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The last design you'll ever make Designing from cradle to grave is no longer good enough. We need to postpone that grave as long as...
7th Dec 2021
23

The last design you'll ever make

from Interaction Magic - George Cave [alt+shift+b] in science

7th Dec 2021
Designing from cradle to grave is no longer good enough. We need to postpone that grave as long as possible. This is how to design for a right to repair.
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Telepathy Tapes Promotes Pseudoscience I was away on vacation the last week, hence no posts, but am now back to my usual schedule. In fact,...
2nd Jun 2025
31

Telepathy Tapes Promotes Pseudoscience

from NeuroLogica Blog [alt+shift+b] in science

2nd Jun 2025
I was away on vacation the last week, hence no posts, but am now back to my usual schedule. In fact, I hope to be a little more consistent starting this summer because (if you follow me on the SGU you already know this) I am retiring from my day job at Yale at the […] The post...
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How Loneliness Reshapes the Brain Feelings of loneliness prompt changes in the brain that further isolate people from social contact....
2nd Aug 2023
1

How Loneliness Reshapes the Brain

from The Quanta Podcast [alt+shift+b] in science

2nd Aug 2023
Feelings of loneliness prompt changes in the brain that further isolate people from social contact. Read more at QuantaMagazine.org. Music is “Slow Burn” by Kevin MacLeod.
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Sylvia Earle & Tierney Thys: Oceanic ### Oceans alive Neither of them eats fish. Both marine biologists applaud the improved regulation...
21st May 2014
1

Sylvia Earle & Tierney Thys: Oceanic

from Long Now [alt+shift+b] in science

21st May 2014
### Oceans alive Neither of them eats fish. Both marine biologists applaud the improved regulation of American fishing and the resulting recovery of important fisheries, but they note that 90% of our seafood is imported, and one-third of that is caught illegally. Two-thirds of...
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Mathematician Hurls Structure and Disorder Into Century-Old Problem A new paper shows how to create longer disordered strings than mathematicians had thought possible,...
3rd Feb 2022
1

Mathematician Hurls Structure and Disorder Into Century-Old Problem

from The Quanta Podcast [alt+shift+b] in science

3rd Feb 2022
A new paper shows how to create longer disordered strings than mathematicians had thought possible, proving that a well-known recent conjecture is “spectacularly wrong.” The post Mathematician Hurls Structure and Disorder Into Century-Old Problem first appeared on...
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What I’ve been reading, July–August 2023 A quasi-monthly feature (I skipped it last month, so this is a double portion). This is a longish...
7th Aug 2023
32

What I’ve been reading, July–August 2023

from The Roots of Progress | Articles [alt+shift+b] in science

7th Aug 2023
A quasi-monthly feature (I skipped it last month, so this is a double portion). This is a longish post covering many topics; feel free to skim and skip around. Recent blog posts and news stories are generally omitted; you can find them in my links digests. These updates are less...
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Speciesquest 2026 A multiplayer distributed game where you find as many species in a year as you can.
31st Dec 2025
2

Speciesquest 2026

from Eukaryote Writes Blog [alt+shift+b] in science

31st Dec 2025
A multiplayer distributed game where you find as many species in a year as you can.
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Daniel Janzen: Third World Conservation: It's ALL Gardening ### Mega gardening Big as life and twice as opinionated, the renowned preservation biologist Daniel...
10th Apr 2004
1

Daniel Janzen: Third World Conservation: It's ALL Gardening

from Long Now [alt+shift+b] in science

10th Apr 2004
### Mega gardening Big as life and twice as opinionated, the renowned preservation biologist Daniel Janzen spoke for The Long Now on Friday, April 9, 2005. His perspective on preservation may be jarring to some: "It's ALL Gardening". Dan Janzen is most widely known for his...
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Mathematical Simplicity May Drive Evolution’s Speed Some researchers are using a complexity framework thought to be purely theoretical to understand...
31st Oct 2019
1

Mathematical Simplicity May Drive Evolution’s Speed

from The Quanta Podcast [alt+shift+b] in science

31st Oct 2019
Some researchers are using a complexity framework thought to be purely theoretical to understand evolutionary dynamics in biological and computational systems. The post Mathematical Simplicity May Drive Evolution’s Speed first appeared on Quanta Magazine
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The “I Already Get It” Slide Followup to: Words as Mental Paintbrush Handles, Guessing The Teacher’s Password Jessica Taylor...
31st Jan 2017
1

The “I Already Get It” Slide

from John Salvatier [alt+shift+b] in science

31st Jan 2017
Followup to: Words as Mental Paintbrush Handles, Guessing The Teacher’s Password Jessica Taylor recently wrote a description of Paul Christiano’s and MIRI’s differing driving intuitions for thinking about the AI alignment problem. Jacob Steinhardt observes that the “do cognitive...
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Upzoning New Zealand How a small country started building a lot of homes
1st Feb 2024
54

Upzoning New Zealand

from The Works in Progress Newsletter [alt+shift+b] in science

1st Feb 2024
How a small country started building a lot of homes
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The Hurricane Hunter Satellites: A Weather Nanosatellite Constellation As part of ongoing outreach efforts by Tropical Weather Analytics (TWA) to the meteorological...
17th Apr 2025
57

The Hurricane Hunter Satellites: A Weather Nanosatellite Constellation

from Drew Ex Machina [alt+shift+b] in science

17th Apr 2025
As part of ongoing outreach efforts by Tropical Weather Analytics (TWA) to the meteorological community, TWA’s Chief Scientist, Andrew LePage, attended the National Tropical Weather Conference […]
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Will the growing deer prion epidemic spread to humans? Why not? If a fatal neurological virus were spreading across deer in the US, and showed up in cooked infected...
25th Jun 2023
97

Will the growing deer prion epidemic spread to humans? Why not?

from Eukaryote Writes Blog [alt+shift+b] in science

25th Jun 2023
If a fatal neurological virus were spreading across deer in the US, and showed up in cooked infected meat, my default assumption would be “we're in danger.” But a prion isn’t a virus. Why does that matter?
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(Ethically dubious) ways to give patients more choice | Out-Of-Pocket Do these ideas give you the ick? Or is there something interesting here
4th Sep 2025
31

(Ethically dubious) ways to give patients more choice | Out-Of-Pocket

from Out-of-Pocket Blog [alt+shift+b] in science

4th Sep 2025
Do these ideas give you the ick? Or is there something interesting here
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Will We Ever Be Able To Forecast Volcanic Eruptions Like Weather? Volcano forecasting can save countless lives. But most of the time warnings are more like educated...
7th Jul 2026
2

Will We Ever Be Able To Forecast Volcanic Eruptions Like Weather?

from The Quanta Podcast [alt+shift+b] in science

7th Jul 2026
Volcano forecasting can save countless lives. But most of the time warnings are more like educated guesses. How close are we to forecasting volcano behavior the way we forecast the weather? On this episode of The Quanta Podcast, host Hannah Waters speaks with writer and volcano...
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Sunday is Both Father’s Day and the Summer Solstice June 21 is not just father's day but the day of the summer solstice The post Sunday is Both Father’s...
19th Jun 2026
0

Sunday is Both Father’s Day and the Summer Solstice

from Andrew Fraknoi – Astronomy Lectures – Astronomy Education Resources [alt+shift+b] in science

19th Jun 2026
June 21 is not just father's day but the day of the summer solstice The post Sunday is Both Father’s Day and the Summer Solstice appeared first on Andrew Fraknoi - Astronomy Lectures - Astronomy Education Resources.
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Smalltalk Blew Steve Jobs’s Mind Late in 1979, Steve Jobs and other colleagues from Apple visited the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center...
1st Mar 2023
58

Smalltalk Blew Steve Jobs’s Mind

from IEEE Spectrum [alt+shift+b] in science

1st Mar 2023
Late in 1979, Steve Jobs and other colleagues from Apple visited the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC). There they were introduced to the experimental Alto computer and the Smalltalk language and computing environment, developed by Alan Kay’s Learning Research Group....
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A rare eagle returns to Colombia’s coffee country
2nd Dec 2025
1

A rare eagle returns to Colombia’s coffee country

from Conservation International [alt+shift+b] in science

2nd Dec 2025
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A Bird’s-Eye View of Nature’s Hidden Order Scientists are exploring a mysterious pattern, found in birds’ eyes, boxes of marbles and other...
5th Aug 2016
1

A Bird’s-Eye View of Nature’s Hidden Order

from The Quanta Podcast [alt+shift+b] in science

5th Aug 2016
Scientists are exploring a mysterious pattern, found in birds’ eyes, boxes of marbles and other surprising places, that is neither regular nor random. The post A Bird’s-Eye View of Nature’s Hidden Order first appeared on Quanta Magazine
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Two of My Science-Fiction Stories Published in May View this email in your browser A Change of Pace from Astronomy News  As you may know, I have been...
2nd Jun 2025
37

Two of My Science-Fiction Stories Published in May

from Andrew Fraknoi – Astronomy Lectures – Astronomy Education Resources [alt+shift+b] in science

2nd Jun 2025
View this email in your browser A Change of Pace from Astronomy News  As you may know, I have been writing science-fiction stories based on good astronomy as my retirement project.  After a good number of rejections from the finest sci-fi magazines the world over, I am now...
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Reality has a surprising amount of detail I. My dad emigrated from Colombia to North America when he was 18 looking looking for a better life....
13th May 2017
1

Reality has a surprising amount of detail

from John Salvatier [alt+shift+b] in science

13th May 2017
I. My dad emigrated from Colombia to North America when he was 18 looking looking for a better life. For my brother and I that meant a lot of standing outside in the cold. My dad’s preferred method of improving his lot was improving lots, and my brother and I were “voluntarily”...
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Rose McDermott: Ideology in our Genes: The Biological Basis for Political Traits While traditionally social factors have been considered to have primary influence on political...
1st Dec 2017
1

Rose McDermott: Ideology in our Genes: The Biological Basis for Political Traits

from Long Now [alt+shift+b] in science

1st Dec 2017
While traditionally social factors have been considered to have primary influence on political behaviors and preferences, more recent research shows that there's also a strong heritable component to ideological attitudes. Rose McDermott, professor of International Relations at...
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Suburban Sprawl Puts Western Homes at Risk from Wildfires Recent fires in Spokane, Washington, and Reno, Nevada, illustrate the risks from suburban sprawl,...
3 weeks ago
1

Suburban Sprawl Puts Western Homes at Risk from Wildfires

from Yale E360 [alt+shift+b] in science

3 weeks ago
Recent fires in Spokane, Washington, and Reno, Nevada, illustrate the risks from suburban sprawl, experts say. In both cities, encroaching flames burned homes built at the edge of wilderness. Read more on E360 →
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Getting To Know Rogue Planets In our Earthling minds, planets exist in solar systems with a Sun in the middle and objects large...
11th Aug 2023
47

Getting To Know Rogue Planets

from Many Worlds [alt+shift+b] in science

11th Aug 2023
In our Earthling minds, planets exist in solar systems with a Sun in the middle and objects large and small orbiting around it.   This is hardly surprising since planets are pretty much exclusively illustrated in solar systems and, until the onset of the 21st century, no other...
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Is AI Sentient Revisited On the SGU this week we interviewed Blake Lemoine, the ex-Google employee who believes that Google’s...
3rd Apr 2023
65

Is AI Sentient Revisited

from NeuroLogica Blog [alt+shift+b] in science

3rd Apr 2023
On the SGU this week we interviewed Blake Lemoine, the ex-Google employee who believes that Google’s LaMDA may be sentient, based on his interactions with it. This was a fascinating discussion, and even though I think we did a pretty deep dive in the time we had, it also felt...
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New Proofs Probe the Limits of Mathematical Truth By proving a broader version of Hilbert’s famous 10th problem, two groups of mathematicians have...
3rd Feb 2025
80

New Proofs Probe the Limits of Mathematical Truth

from Quanta Magazine [alt+shift+b] in science

3rd Feb 2025
By proving a broader version of Hilbert’s famous 10th problem, two groups of mathematicians have expanded the realm of mathematical unknowability. The post New Proofs Probe the Limits of Mathematical Truth first appeared on Quanta Magazine
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Do AI Models Agree On How They Encode Reality? In the allegory of Plato’s cave, prisoners see the world only through shadows. Extending this...
3rd Feb 2026
1

Do AI Models Agree On How They Encode Reality?

from The Quanta Podcast [alt+shift+b] in science

3rd Feb 2026
In the allegory of Plato’s cave, prisoners see the world only through shadows. Extending this metaphor to AI, AI models are the prisoners and the shadows are streams of data. Are all models converging on a singular representation of reality? On this week’s episode of The Quanta...
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Kishore Mahbubani: Has the West Lost It? Can Asia Save It? In Kishore Mahbubani’s view, global power is shifting from the West to the Rest—from Europe and...
1st May 2018
1

Kishore Mahbubani: Has the West Lost It? Can Asia Save It?

from Long Now [alt+shift+b] in science

1st May 2018
In Kishore Mahbubani’s view, global power is shifting from the West to the Rest—from Europe and North America to Asia and Africa. He argues that changes will be required both in the West and the Rest to manage the shift gracefully for long-term stability. The rest of the world...
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Louis Hyman: The New Deal You Don't Know Historian Louis Hyman's work focuses on the history of American capitalism. In his book _[Borrow:...
2nd Jan 2018
1

Louis Hyman: The New Deal You Don't Know

from Long Now [alt+shift+b] in science

2nd Jan 2018
Historian Louis Hyman's work focuses on the history of American capitalism. In his book _[Borrow: The American Way of Debt](https://www.amazon.com/Borrow-American-Debt-Vintage-Original/dp/0307741680/)_ , he examines in detail how the evolution of personal debt has not only...
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How To Get Cheap Ozempic Or other, more effective GLP-1 drugs
12th Mar 2025
55

How To Get Cheap Ozempic

from Cremieux Recueil [alt+shift+b] in science

12th Mar 2025
Or other, more effective GLP-1 drugs
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Dittemore’s Law A quick note to formalize some observations on elite organization dysfunction. The Space Mirror...
17th Jan 2025
83

Dittemore’s Law

from Casey Handmer's blog [alt+shift+b] in science

17th Jan 2025
A quick note to formalize some observations on elite organization dysfunction. The Space Mirror Memorial at Kennedy Space Center in Florida commemorates the 25 US astronauts who have died in flight.  Ron Dittemore is the retired former Space Shuttle program manager who was...
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